Abstract:
Portugal hopes to stimulate initiatives in three key areas during its stint in the EU's Presidency seat: publishing and scientific information; nanosciences and nanotechnologies; reform and modernisation of universities.

Setting the scene for its Presidency, the Portuguese Government states: 'We know that globally, the European Union has not yet reached the goal of 1% public investment in R&D [research and development], or the 2% of private investment in R&D. The exchange of experiences and mutual learning between national governments is still scarce and the collaboration between governments, R&D institutions and scientific organisations at the European level is still in its initial phase.'